November 7, 2002 - Minnesota Senator-elect Norm Coleman says he hopes to persuade interim Senator Dean Barkley to step down before the newly elected members of Congress are sworn in. On November 4th, 2002, Governor Ventura appointed Barkley to replace the late Senator Paul Wellstone who died in a plane crash two weeks ago. Coleman will follow Barkley after defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale in Tuesday's election.
November 8, 2002 - The stage at the Pantages Theater in downtown Minneapolis will light up again tonight for the first show since the historic theater went dark in 1984. Backed by the city of Minneapolis, theater investors have restored much of the elaborate plaster detail of the building's original 1916 decor. Supporters say it's a hopeful step toward establishing a vibrant theater district on Hennepin Avenue.
November 21, 2002 - In the two weeks after Halloween, three college men disappeared - Christopher Jenkins from Minneapolis; Josh Guimond from Collegeville; and Michael Noll of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Around the same time, Erika Dalquist, a 21-year-old woman in Brainerd, failed to show up for work, and has not been seen since. Despite constant media exposure and massive search efforts, all four are still missing, and authorities are still waiting for the one tip or stroke of luck that might yield some answers. If the cases are linked, a break in one might solve them all. But at this point it seems just as likely all four are only connected by a tragic coincidence.
November 25, 2002 - MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports on NCS Pearson, a test scoring company that mishandled thousands of Minnesota high school exams, agreeing to pay seven million dollars in damages to affected students and their families. The settlement comes more than two years after state education officials uncovered the errors, and just days before a class action lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial.
November 27, 2002 - Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports on The Peshtigo Fire, which wiped out the booming mill town of Peshtigo Wisconsin, just north of Green Bay. About two thousand people died.
December 2, 2002 - MPR's William Wilcoxen reports on how a trial can be affected by the fame of the defendant. Kirby Puckett faces a February 2003 trial on charges that he dragged a woman into a restaurant bathroom and groped her there. The trial will draw public scrutiny mostly because of Puckett's celebrity status as a Hall of Fame baseball player.
December 6, 2002 - MPR’s Tom Scheck reports on the expensive Minnesota's U.S. Senate race.
December 11, 2002 - Mainstreet Radio’s Cara Hetland reports on modern violin makers who want to unravel the mysteries of how the old great instruments were made. The Stradivari violins are among the most mysterious and most expensive instruments. For centuries, makers have wanted to copy the techniques used by Antonio Stradivari but they don't know how.
December 16, 2002 - We delve into stories from Minnesota's past, with three Minnesota Public Radio documentaries. First, MPR's Dan Olson reports on Sister Elizabeth Kenny's efforts to fight the polio epidemic in the 1940's and 50's. The second part of the program is a report from MPR's Tim Post and Mark Steil on the 1862 Dakota Indian war, called "Minnesota's Uncivil War." Then, MPR's Mary Losure and Dan Olson report on the struggles of the Finns who immigrated to Minnesota's Iron Range at the turn of the century. This report is called "Finland Was a Poor Country."
December 16, 2002 - MPR’s Michael Khoo presents highlights of four years with Governor Jesse Ventura, and Minnesota's brief experiment with three-party government.